Okay--Here's the Scoop

Have you ever had a mosquito bite on the bottom of your foot or on the palm of your hand? Oh my goodness, I hate it when that happens because inevitably it keeps me up itching at night! That is what happened last night, er, this morning at 5:00. I was dead tired from my long day and really wanted to get as much sleep as possible, and low and behold the lovely mosquito bite on my palm woke me up and would NOT stop itching. I ended up having to get up and freeze it with ice, and that did the trick! Finally after an hour I went back to sleep for a little while more.

That doesn't have much to do with anything except to help me explain that I am still tired today. : ( Oh well, I will catch up sometime!

So, yesterday was Sarah's surgery. I will tell you all about it in a minute, but I will start with telling you about my amazing little girl's day when we got home. First of all, she looked pitiful. I thought some might like to see even though it's so sad. She has a huge, bulgy bandage over her right eye that was removed. Her left eye had treatment done to it, and so it was painful and she couldn't open it for the entire day. She still is not opening it today. I know that if I was in that shape for an entire day (and now two days), it would drive me crazy. But Sarah took it in stride. As long as she had some regular tylenol and a lap to sit on, she stayed comfortable enough. We cuddled with her all day and let her nap on our laps or in her bed whenever she wanted. And we let her listen to (because of course she couldn't watch) whatever she wanted all day long. And all she wanted to listen to all day long was one video on youtube: The Itsy Bitsy Spider. All day. And the computer is in our kitchen, so we all listened to Itsy Bitsy Spider--all day. : ) It was so sweet. She knows the video by heart and what is happening on the screen the whole time, so she would give us a running commentary of it each time. She would say, "Hi Spider!" And "Stick," (when the sun hits the clouds with a club to get them to move) and "Squoosh" when the spider gets stepped on. Etc... And she would pretty much say the same things every single time, unless she was falling asleep. But then she would normally wake up enough at the end of the video to mumble, "Itsy Spider again." : )

That was our day. Then at night before bed when I was changing her diaper and putting her jammies on, her eyes were still closed, but she was starting to be back to her old self, smiling and giggling at her brother. The girl is a little champ. And today she still is not opening that eye, but she is acting pretty normal. We had to go the the clinic today to check her blood counts, and while they were taking her blood, even though she couldn't see it, she said, "Hi, blood!" Yes, she is one unique and precious baby girl.

On to the surgery...Dr. Boyle removed her right eyeball, and it went well. He said there was evidence that the cancer had perforated the back of the eye, and so now there are likely microscopic cancer cells in the socket that hopefully the last megadose of chemo will take care of. There may be cancer in the part of the optic nerve that was left in there, but they don't know that yet. Dr. Aaburg worked on the tumors in her left eye. She has a number of tiny ones in there that were treatable with lasers and cryotherapy (freezing.) He said that went well, but there are two in the middle of the eyeball floating in the "jelly" in there that are pesky little stinkers. He said they will be the hardest ones to get rid of because of their density and where they are. He was not able to use his therapies on them this time, or at least not with success. So, she has one more scheduled dose of regular chemo this weekend, and then the megadose/stem cell transplant sometime soon, probably in September, and they will see if that will take care of them. If not, there are still a few more treatment options they can try that are a bit more risky. Please keep praying that God will take care of those. We are praying Sarah will be able to keep her eyesight! (Supposedly, the treatment he did yesterday in that eye should not affect her sight.)

Thank you everyone who is praying for our girl. Every day we learn more and more what a priceless treasure she is. Such a blessing to us in every way. God is teaching us and showing us as days go by how He is here and making Himself known even in hard times. I loved this quote in my devotional book this morning:

"My Peace is like a shaft of golden light shining on you continuously. During days of bright sunshine, it may blend in with your surroundings. On darker days, My Peace stands out in sharp contrast to your circumstances. See times of darkness as opportunities for My Light to shine in transcendant splendor."

Blessings to you today!